Beyond Barriers
by Anjirika
Summary: "Kathryn… maybe it's time we crossed that barrier." A coda to Season Seven, Episode Eleven "Shattered" where Chakotay and Janeway talk about the barriers between them and whether or not, not crossing them was the right course of action for them to take.


Disclaimer: The characters of Star Trek: Voyager do not belong to me. They belong to Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jerry Taylor. I am merely borrowing their extraordinary genius for the purpose of this story and I promise that I will give it back once I'm done, even though I don't always want to. :D

_Author's Note: I was watching Season Seven, Episode Eleven "Shattered" and just wanted to add this little coda. I hope that you enjoy and that you will take the time to review it. _

**Beyond Barriers**

"So tell me," Captain Kathryn Janeway began with a smile as she finished off the last of the cider. "What really happened?"

Commander Chakotay shook his head. "I'm not going to tell you."

Janeway gave her first office a little pout. "If it never happened in the first place, you're not really breaking the temporal prime directive in the first place are you?" she asked, watching as Chakotay looked away from her. "Well? Why won't you tell me?"

"_Well?"_ _asked Captain Janeway as she was about to pass through the temporal barrier which would take her back to her own timeline. "Why won't you tell me?"_

"_Captain," Chakotay began with a sad smile. "It's like I said..."_

"_Some barriers are not meant to be crossed," she interrupted. "I know what you said. But what I don't understand is why." _

"_What do you mean why?" _

_Kathryn walked back and stood face to face with Chakotay. "I mean that I know that there is more between us then just friendship," she told him, knowing that she was probably crossing a line but not really caring considering the fact that she would never remember it once the timeline was restored. "I haven't even really met you yet and I can sense that." _

"_I can't speak to your senses Kathryn." Chakotay said rather sadly. _

"_Chakotay you cannot tell me that you have never thought about it." _

"_No," he confirmed with a slight nod of his head. "I'd be lying if I said I hadn't." _

"_Then just answer me this…" she continued with a whisper. "…if you feel the same thing that I have felt for you over the past couple hours, for the past couple years, why have you and I never acted on it?"_

_Chakotay sighed. "You better get back to your timeline," he told her as he took a step back. "The sooner I fix things the better." _

"_Yes," Kathryn agreed with a sad nod of her head. "I suppose I should…" she went to leave but then paused and turned back. "You know I can't speak to the decisions that I'm going to make, but if it were up to me right now… if Mark wasn't in the picture of course… I would have to think twice about crossing that barrier." _

"Well?" asked Kathryn once more. "Are you going to tell me or not?"

Chakotay sighed. "You're not going to let this go. Are you."

Kathryn shook her head. "Nope."

"Alright then," he conceded. "I guess it won't hurt."

And so he told her all that had transpired. How the ship had been fractured into different time periods. How he had to earn her trust all over again before she had even met him. How she had encountered Seven before she had been freed; B'Lonna before she had purged herself of her anger; Naomi and Icheb when they were all grown up. Chakotay told her how she had seen bits and pieces of their future and how she didn't understand the greater narrative; that she didn't understand that it was the journey that they were taking which was so important and not the fact that it was being taken so far away from home. Chakotay told her how she had then gone on to bring her crew together from the different time periods to overtake Seska and ensure that he was able to put the ship back together again.

"It's incredible," Kathryn murmured as she sat back in her seat. "I almost don't believe it."

"Believe me if I hadn't had been there I don't know if I would have believed it myself," Chakotay told her with a half smile.

Kathryn watched her first officer for a moment before deducing that there was something that he wasn't telling her. "There was something else though," she prompted with an inquiring look on her face. "Wasn't there?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Come now Chakotay," she said with a knowing look.

Chakotay sighed and shook his head. "I'd rather not go into it."

"I could make it an order," she pointed out as she leaned forward.

"You could," he agreed. "But that doesn't mean that I'll follow it."

"Chakotay…" Kathryn began as she reached out to touch the back of his hand lightly. "Please, I need to know what I said."

Chakotay looked up at her sharply. "What makes you think that you said anything?"

"I know myself," she told him simply. "I know that I would have asked you lots of things. What I don't really know is what I could have said to make you so pensive."

"You asked how well we got to know each other."

"Is that all?" Kathryn asked as she sat back. "We've gotten to know each other very well."

"I know that, and that's what I told you… the past you but…"

"But what Chakotay?" she asked. "What are you concerned about?"

"But it was the way in which you said it," he answered after some hesitation. "And it was the answer that I gave."

Kathryn ground her teeth together as she felt her heart clench. Without even having to explain it, she knew exactly what he was talking about. Seven years, countless adventures and more dancing around each other than she had ever thought was possible, Kathryn knew Chakotay very well and she had a feeling that she knew what he had told her past self.

"What answer did you give?" she asked tentatively.

"I said that there were some barriers that we never crossed."

Kathryn nodded her head. "It's the truth."

"It is," Chakotay agreed. "But Kathryn I've been thinking…"

"About what?"

"About whether or not we made the right decision."

"Regarding?"

"Regarding us." Chakotay told her as he looked Kathryn in the eyes.

Kathryn's shoulders slumped a little forward. "What about us?" she asked.

"You can't deny that there's always been…something between us."

"Oh I don't know," Kathryn told him. "We've done a good job of it so far."

"I know," he agreed. "But has it been the right thing to do."

"Chakotay,"

"Kathryn… maybe it's time we crossed that barrier."

Kathryn looked at him and for a second he thought that she was going to refuse him, like she had every time that he had tried to broach this subject before. He remembered how he had kept his distance because of Mark, despite the fact that there was a growing attraction between them. When she had found out that Mark had moved on and married someone else, he had continued to keep his distance because he knew that she needed space. But as time went on, as they grew closer, he often wondered whether or not they were meant to spend the rest of their long lives in the Delta Quadrant alone. In the last six months alone, Kathryn had presided over three weddings. B'Lonna was pregnant and soon Voyager would be home to another baby. Their community was growing and changing and like every community Chakotay knew that sooner or later he and Kathryn would have to take their place within it and not just as the Captain and the First Officer.

"Chakotay…"

"I love you Kathryn," he blurted out as he reached out and took her hand. "I have for a long time now. And while I have full faith that you're going to get us home, I really don't think that I will be able to bare keeping my feelings locked inside any longer."

Kathryn opened her mouth to say something but instead she closed it and smiled. Chakotay could almost see the wheels in her head spinning and right before his eyes he could see a decision being made. And after getting to know her so well, Chakotay gave her hand a little squeeze before leaning forward. Soon they were nose to nose and then they were kissing. Despite the years of pent up tension, the kiss was soft and gentle and when Chakotay pulled away he could see a faint blush on her cheeks.

"Well…" she said in surprise. "I'm not quite sure what to say."

"Say that you love me," Chakotay whispered to her as he placed a hand on her cheek. "Say that you love me and that you're willing to cross this barrier between us."

Kathryn looked into Chakotay's eyes. "I do love you," she told him honestly. "I always have… and I am more than willing to cross this barrier between us."

Chakotay grinned and pulled Kathryn close for another kiss and this time it was full of all the passion that they held between them.

END


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